


Full Stop

by Samuraiter



Category: Persona 3
Genre: F/F, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-18
Updated: 2014-10-18
Packaged: 2018-02-21 17:16:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2476100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samuraiter/pseuds/Samuraiter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A resurrection long in the offing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Full Stop

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Stealth_Noodle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stealth_Noodle/gifts).



> Using the name _Arisato Minako_ for the FMC due to long-running habit. This takes place after the events of the _Arena_ duology (i.e. two years after _Persona 3_ and _The Answer_ ), but knowledge of those games and their happenings is not required to read the story. Granted, _P3P_ and the _Arena_ games do not exist in the same continuity, but, since their events are distinct from each other, accommodating _P3P_ – and _The Answer_ , too – should not be too big a stretch for the imagination.

Convincing Elizabeth – through Theodore, after cornering him – to open a corridor to the Sea of Souls had been a major undertaking, but she had agreed to do it. The former members of SEES had increased their strength to levels that surpassed anything they had achieved during their first journey through the Abyss of Time to the Great Seal, and they had demonstrated their willingness to face Erebus a second time – in effect, to help Elizabeth achieve her goal of destroying it for all time, all thanks to a project that Mitsuru had asked the Kirijo Group to hone during the preceding years.

_All of that funding,_ Yukari thought, trying not to look up or down for fear that the stars – the _souls_ , she had to correct herself – might make her lose her sense of direction, _for a big gamble_. The Kirijo Group had already suffered encroachment from the government, and its shareholders had started to ask about all of the money that had been spent on projects that remained under lock and key. The spectre of bankruptcy loomed like a shadow above the entire company, but ... she and Mitsuru had spent their lives destroying shadows. Why fear one that only existed in a stack of ledgers?

Mitsuru had already summoned Artemisia – no need for the Evokers, at this point, and, thanks to the monocle-like device – the Ether Feeder, fruit of all that research – she had affixed to the side of her head, she could keep her Persona by her side for extended periods of time, rather than for the flash of taking one action and disappearing. Yukari had one, too, and it still bothered her that she no longer felt the drain of calling Isis. Instead, Isis simply appeared as needed, staying next to her like a companion, rather than the extension of her soul – her own star in the Sea – that she knew her to be.

"Takeba. The others are engaged," Mitsuru said, gesturing to flashes of light that had started manifesting at different points around them, "and that means you and I need to go." Next to her, Artemisia nodded once, and they both rushed upwards, Yukari following immediately behind them, a haze starting to form around all of them to indicate that they approached the Great Seal, Erebus already starting to form beneath them as a giant mass of Shadows, though their friends destroyed each fragment as it manifested, slowing the process, weakening the monstrosity as it gathered itself.

"Takeba again, huh?" Yukari noted. Mitsuru glanced at her over her shoulder – the closest she might get to a wink and a nod. Always one or the other, Mitsuru: Either a formal _Takeba_ , or a very intimate _Yukari_ , and she took great pains to prevent any of the others from witnessing the latter. One exception to that existed, and that exception happened to be a major reason why the two of them had gone to every length to return to the Sea of Souls. A dull roar sounded beneath them. Erebus sensed their intent, perhaps, and sought to stop them before they reached their objective.

A black hand of impossible size almost formed around them, only to dissipate due to the other Operatives – all of them sporting Ether Feeders – attacking it at its base, their Personae not only damaging it, but absorbing its essence, taking all of the negative emotions that composed Erebus and using them as to fuel their attacks. Mitsuru had been inspired to create the devices by the events at Inaba, gaining a new grasp of how Shadows could be not only distinct entities, but also building blocks, things to be altered, changed, reconstructed, and transfigured as needed for her purposes.

_Turning the monster against itself,_ Yukari thought, feeling energy coursing through Isis as she absorbed her share of the fragment of Erebus that had attempted to stop them, _turning bits of Shadow back into bits of Persona_. It involved manipulating a Plume of Dusk and incorporating it into a miniature version of the systems that powered Aigis and Labrys, but she did not care about the details. If it fulfilled her expectations, she needed nothing more from it than that, and, once everything had been resolved, she might have no need for it again – another ghost of the Kirijo past that could be exorcised.

Another hand formed, only to dissipate as quickly as the one before it. Then, the Sea of Souls faded behind them, and they found themselves in a halo of light and warmth. It was difficult to look at the Great Seal directly, but Yukari could feel a sense of peace radiating from it, and a familiar ache crept into her heart. _Minako_. Years had gone by, and she still remembered her face, her smile. And it had been the same for Mitsuru. She and Yukari had been at odds for so long, but Minako had cared for both of them, and they had both loved her in turn. Now, at last, she could be returned to them.

Silence – they stood before the door itself, the Great Seal situated in the middle of it to shine its light down upon them. The two of them had debated the philosophy of their plan night after night, asking themselves if it was right to break the cycle of Erebus reaching for Nyx, asking if they intended to do it only for the sake of having Minako back in their lives. The Fall had not been averted. Rather, it had been stalled. If they destroyed Erebus, could that not eliminate the problem entirely? They had to try. And, if it meant Minako could come back, so much the better for everybody involved.

"Yukari." No one to hear them now, unless Minako was listening in her sacred sleep. "Thank you. For everything." Mitsuru took her by the hand, and they both floated up to where their friend – their lover – lay, statue-like, arms crossed over her chest like a mummy, eyes closed. If they had not been fortified by the Ether Feeders, they might not have been able to get as close to her as they dared, but ... dare they did. Both they and their Personae reached out to touch her, to make contact with her for the first time since their war against the Shadows had taken her from them, years ago.

Minako opened her eyes, and Yukari could feel her looking _through_ her, as if seeing past her present self into her memories, seeing everything that had happened since her disappearance from the mortal world, as if to ask whether or not the time had come for her to return. In that instant, her final Persona, the Messiah, manifested around her, and Yukari realized the gravity of what she and Mitsuru were asking of the Great Seal. As long as Minako stayed in place, humanity could be safe, through Erebus would always be there to threaten that peace. And if she returned to the life of a human —

The Messiah reached down to touch both Mitsuru and Yukari, and Yukari could hear a voice in the back of her mind. _Are you ready to come with me?_ And she realized that ... no, she could not. She and Mitsuru – and all the others, too – had so many things left to do that she could scarcely count them all. _No? But I can't come back with you, even if I want to. I'm different now. There's so much that I've seen_. A wistful note. _But the two of you have each other, even if I'm not there. That's all I really wanted_. Through the halo of light, Minako smiled, closing her eyes again. _Go. Be happy on Earth together_.

They started to descend. Of Erebus, nothing remained, and Yukari could feel the pressure of its presence lifting as the Sea of Souls returned to its normal ebb and flow. Above, the Great Seal stayed where it was, calm and unchanging. She suspected that Erebus would always remanifest as long as Minako stayed where she was, and she had hoped to do more for her, but ... humans had limits, and, as long as they did, they _needed_ a Great Seal to protect them from themselves. Thus, as long as the Operatives existed, there would still be Shadows for them to fight in the name of a better future.

"I expected that answer," Mitsuru said, still standing next to Yukari as Artemisia dissipated, "even if, in my vanity, I hoped for more." A smile on her face, a _real_ smile. "But she's right. I do ... have you." A hug, and a light kiss on the cheek. "Never think that isn't enough, Yukari." They stayed there in the radiance of the Great Seal for a little while, Yukari content to be in her arms, before she said, "I don't want to go back, but the real world's not going to wait for us forever, is it?" She let Yukari go, but still held her hand as they drifted back down towards the way back – towards their friends.

"I don't see it coming to a full stop any time soon," Yukari admitted, but she could feel a deep sense of personal closure that she had been trying to find for a very long time.

**END**.


End file.
